


Finders Keepers

by Writer_Markilyn



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: #Demon!Shane, #Demons and ghouls, #Ghoulfriends, #Protective!Shane, #Ryan is a literal ray of sunshine, #Ryan is his human, #Ryan is metaphorically Shane's, #Sara ships it, #Shane is a skeptic despite being a demon lmao, #Shyan, #Sorta Shyan, Demon Shane Madej, M/M, Shane Madej Is So Whipped, Slow Burn, and now I'm trash, gore and fluff, started off as platonic and flirty-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:12:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writer_Markilyn/pseuds/Writer_Markilyn
Summary: Demons were supposed to be the definition of all evil, created from corrupted souls or from Lucifer himself, but Shane Madej begged to differ.  He was just a simple demon going on ghost-hunting adventures with his over-the-top supernatural believer best friend, not just for the laughs, but demons like Shane Madej don’t share.  Finders keepers and all that.





	1. Meet Madej the Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I'm taking a small break from Star Wars, as this fandom has claimed my soul for the time being...Sorry if it's shit, just something that I've kicked around my head after seeing the wonderful boys of BFU.
> 
> Btw, the rating may change later, I'm also not for sure what to do with Shyan, I love them in a platonic friendship/relationship, but how bitchin' would it be to have a demon boyfriend????  
> So they're gonna be flirty af with each other with no motive in the first couple of chapters. Shane might get more hands-on bc of reasons.

Embracing this mortal life for six years was still a constant struggle of changing events, the demon possessing this vessel looked down at his hands, the pink flush around the knuckles still did not fail to mesmerize him; it was a sign of life and that he was real once more.  He hummed quietly, his train of thought taken elsewhere, he was still adapting, even though it wasn’t hard to blend it, as long as he didn’t observe someone too closely or did something that would surely rise suspicion, like the one time four years ago he got mugged in a shady area behind a bar, he had been stabbed 5 times in the chest, but Shane had merely blinked, not fazed, before snapping his attacker’s neck, and walked out to some sober people heading to the bar, who were horrified, and called the police and an ambulance to assist him.

_So strange, but so fascinating._   Shane thought as he looked around and saw his co-workers either intently focusing on the task in front of them on their screen, or talking among others.  He glanced over to his right, where Ned sat, the mortal was quickly typing before swiping his mouse around to edit a video that he and his friends had produced.

He heard Eugene to the right of Ned, swearing softly to himself before getting up from his chair and briskly walked on by, he saw that Zach watched him go before looking at Keith curiously, who simply gave him a one-shouldered shrug.  Shane didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that he had been under a lot of stress as of late, as the air around him tasted bitter and wrung out; humans sure got worked up easily and stayed angry too long for their short lives.

Shane knew that Eugene would have been the perfect demon had he isolated himself from society, as it was how entities like Shane were born.

“Madej!”

Shane barely suppressed the shiver that raced through his vessel at the affectionate tone used for his true name; Madej was quite a sadistic and daring dark energy that enjoyed knowing things that others did not, even if it was right under their nose, like his last name actually being his true name and keeping the vessel’s name as his first name.

“Are you ignoring me now or have you finally dissociated out of the living realm entirely?”

“Ryan, what have I told you about interrupting my time speaking with my superiors?  I can only keep you humans safe for so long,” Shane drawled, trailing his gaze over to his standing friend, who rolled his eyes at him.  He quickly snatched the offered cup Ryan handed to him that he got from the current coffee shop that enslaved the human race and perhaps Shane as well.  There was just something about Starbucks that appealed to Shane more than the sweet taste of fear, perhaps it was enchantment or the creator of Starbucks had sold their soul to make the best products for the rest of forever.

“What a fine deal that must have been,” Shane hummed to himself. 

“What?” Ryan questioned, dropping into the vacant chair next to Shane.

Shane shook his head and sipped at his drink, “You only bring offerings when you think that I’m going to be difficult.”

“Not so much as think, as I know you will be,” Ryan responded, taking a drink of his own sweeter coffee.  He was pulling out his phone, scrolling through his notes, “I found a place in New Mexico, a middle-aged couple owns this property, they don’t live in the house anymore, due to demonic activity, as older relatives, dating back in the early 1900s were part of a cult, they did animal sacrifices there and tried to make pacts with demons, so I’ve been told,” Ryan said, offering his phone to Shane to look at pictures and quotes from the couple and a few ghost hunters who had investigated there.

_Ah, the Nocts, still the same old madness._ Shane glanced through the photos, it was odd how the house had not changed much over the next century, but given all the dark energy that had been pulled through that old house kept it in a standstill, the energy keeping it stable.  He gave Ryan his phone back, “And you believe that you’ll find your proof there?”

“Yea,” Ryan nodded.  “The husband, Marcus, he’s part of the bloodline of the original cult, he said that when he did live in that house for a while with his wife Amanda, they would hear things, things would move around, sometimes they couldn’t even open the doors or windows in the house.”

Shane raised an eyebrow, “And _you_ want to go in there?  You get anxious when I leave you in a room for two minutes, how will you ever survive if we’re trapped in the house?”

Ryan paused, “…I hadn’t thought about that.”

Shane laughed when he could taste the nervousness coming from his human friend, “Don’t worry, Ryan, ghosts and demons can’t hurt you, because they aren’t real, if anything, it’ll be the musty air that hurts you.”

“Har, har, just you wait, Madej!” Ryan dramatically stood from his chair.  “I bet we’ll get something!”

“Hmm, if you say so,” Shane shrugged at him.  He watched Ryan leave and a low simmering protectiveness swept through him, “But nothing will happen, I will be there,” he said lowly, going back to his own work.

Ned simply side-eyed him before adjusting his headphones.

~~~ 

Work passed on by until Shane looked down at his watch and saw that it was time to shut’er down and turn in for the night, unless you were friends with Ryan and it was a Friday, then it meant that it was popcorn and movie night, and Shane couldn’t find himself to complain as it meant that he could keep a watch over his gentle human, as Ryan was quite inviting and Shane _really_ didn’t want to get into a cat fight with another spirit or demon over Ryan.

Shane said farewell to the Try Guys, pulled on his dark wash denim jacket, messenger bag, and headed over to where Ryan’s desk was—he really needed to move over to him as it was more convenient—and he saw that Ryan was still working intently, judging by the furrow in his brow, well, Shane couldn’t continue to let that happen.

He grabbed Ryan’s chair and pulled him backwards, earning a startled gasp from Ryan, who whipped around to glare at Shane, “Boo,” Shane grinned.

“You asshole,” Ryan grumbled.  He pulled himself forward and saved his work, “I’m surprised you hadn’t shot off to your mancave.”

“I figured our routinely plans were still in go, so I didn’t want to risk the betrayed text from you, of you saying that I’m _such_ a terrible friend,” Shane mused.

“Which you are,” Ryan said, powering down his computer.

Shane feigned a wounded sound and placed a hand over his still heart, “You wound me.”

Ryan smiled at Shane’s dramatic gasp, ‘You know why you’re so terrible, you constantly mock me for our ghost hunting adventures!  At least Bre—”

“Ah,” Shane cut him off, “We don’t mention that name, and I only do it because I’m right.”

Ryan huffed and gathered his backpack and jacket, “You don’t know that you’re right.”

“Neither do you,” Shane replied.  He dropped an arm over Ryan’s shoulders and ruffled his hair, earning an annoyed huff, “What movie is on tonight?”

“Well, I actually found something that you’ll probably like,” Ryan said.

“Oh?” Shane questioned him as they walked outside to where Ryan was parked; Shane lived only five minutes of walking distance from work, so he never drove his car, plus he wasn’t overly fond of vehicles, as they were deathtraps of their own kind. 

His example of this cause was a young woman standing near the parking lot, her form battered, bloody, and her jaw was dislocated, but people passed on through her, those who did, shivered and pulled their jacket tighter around themselves.

“Yea, it’s about an alien infestation and…”

Shane let himself get lost in Ryan’s explanation of the plot as they drove away, he still glanced at the ghost of the woman, but she never reacted to anything, Shane only assumed that the impact of shock had stunned her spirit into a braindead entity that was stuck permanently at her death spot.

How depressing the rest of her ghostly days were going to be.

To be fair, the demon had tried to interact with her, trying to make her become self-aware, have her move on, but all he got was an unfocused stare and a low groan that left her dislocated mouth, and Shane knew the only way to actually remove her from the land of the living was to banish her soul or devour it, and he wasn’t _that_ cruel.

Ryan kept most of the conversation that Shane didn’t mind, he would answer when it was needed, but most of the conversation was just Ryan talking about the new location and that they were going to the following Monday and were going to stay until Tuesday morning before taking the remaining of Tuesday to recuperate.

Shane wasn’t too keen on the idea, but he’d let Ryan have his fun, Shane would just have to be on extra alert, as demons from a summoning were far more dangerous than a spirit pissed from being murdered, believe it or not. 

Demons that were summoned were directly taken from the darkest parts of Hell, brought into the world of life, spreading their madness, bloodlust, and hatred and anger that brewed from the layers of Hell for centuries, they thrived off life and possession was how they continued their existence, until they broke their vessel and took the soul of their prey back to Hell with them to be devoured.

But Shane wasn’t saying that a murdered spirit was also something to fuck around with, the older the spirit the more of a threat they were as well, but they were still never going to be on the level of a fully-fledged demon.

“You all right?  You’ve been spaced out for the whole ride,” Ryan’s voice broke through Shane’s inner thoughts.

Shane blinked and looked around himself and found that he was in the parking garage of Ryan’s townhouse, “Yea, you should know that it’s part of my charm by now.”

“It’s only nice when you should be quiet,” Ryan replied.

“So, all the time then?” Shane mused.

“Yep!” Ryan laughed and got out of his car to lead the way to his townhouse.

Shane entered after Ryan and his shoulders relaxed a little more when he couldn’t see any straggling spirits that had attached themselves to Ryan from any recent adventures of theirs.  He still did wave a hand around the windows and door, his sigil glowed briefly before vanishing from the surfaces and Shane trekked after Ryan, who had vanished into the kitchen.

“Other than popcorn, do you want to order out dinner?” Ryan asked, passing Shane a beer.

“Already drinking?  It’s barely past 5!” Shane teased him, but easily popped the top off, which Ryan still thought was insane because it was not a twist off cap, proved by the small scar Ryan now had on the palm of his hand.  “Mmm, what did you have in mind for dinner?”

“I could live off Chinese forever,” Ryan responded, taking a sip of his beer.

“Of course you could,” Shane mused.  “Please don’t croak on me early.”

“Why, do you think that I’ll haunt you?” Ryan asked him, grinning at him and laughed when Shane let out an exasperated sigh and walked into the living room.  “Admit it!”

“No, I fear that I’ll have your stupid last words being “Going ghost” and those’ll haunt me until my last breath,” Shane responded, dropping onto Ryan’s couch.

Ryan laughed until he wheezed and Shane looked mildly amused, just smiling at Ryan’s pure joy. 

He would protect his small friend until the end of days.

~~~

Their food arrived just as they were getting settled for their movie and Ryan thanked the delivery person and passed the bag off to Shane, who took it, as Ryan was signing the receipt and wished them a good night, before heading back over to Shane, who had already divided their meals.

Ryan had started to scarf down his food, nearly choking at how hot it was and his eyes watered.

Shane passed him his beer, looking him over to make sure that he wasn’t actually about to choke on his food, “Easy there, tiger, don’t choke yourself out dead.”

Ryan was too busy trying to soothe his burned tongue to shoot back a witty response and just gestured at Shane to pay attention to the movie.

The demon just chuckled to himself and did so and took his time through his food, while Ryan still kept trying to chew through hot pieces of chicken.

The movie was as typical as an alien movie could get, Shane kept his attention to it as to not have Ryan think he was boring him, as he wasn’t, but this wasn’t something that Shane would have gone for, maybe a documentary of aliens instead, and from what he could tell, Ryan was invested, as he pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on his knees, while staring wide eyed as an alien was dissecting a man into pieces and keeping his innards in jars to examine later.

“Rude to aliens, who is to say that they want to do this to humans?” Shane asked, now shoveling popcorn into his mouth.  He had to wipe the crumbs out of his beard, as humans had made a weird habit during November, where men did not shave their face, and Shane only took to it because it kept his face warm during the cold snaps California got occasionally.  “What if they just want to enjoy a nice hotdog on the beach or something?”

Ryan glanced over at him, “How do you know what aliens are into?  The could be into murder, we don’t know.”

“I do know they’re not into butt-stuff as much as you are,” Shane teased him and laughed at Ryan’s sputtering before throwing a couch pillow at him that Shane let hit him just so that Ryan would feel better.   

They fell back into a peaceful silence and Shane actually allowed himself to fully relax and enjoy the moment, as he had drawn over his sigils again, Ryan didn’t have a linger presence looming over him, they were both comfortable and full, and it was Friday.

He let his eyes slip shut, tuning out the background music, he could hear Ryan’s rhythmic heartbeat, the ringing of white noise was drowned out by that, he let his mind wander about their new location, he would have to do some reading tonight to see any events that had happened at that household as he had just been lurking around Hell around that time, he had been summoned there once, but cut loose when he wasn’t in the mood to be ordered around, he did slice up the summoner a bit when they had insulted him, and Madej had blocked them from ever attempting to contact him.

He had been an extremely petty demon way back in the day.

A soft chuckle escaped him and he knew that Ryan was probably giving him a bewildered look to be laughing at a possible killing scene as Shane distantly heard shrieking and he opened his eyes and yup, a woman was being abducted and Shane let himself zone out again.

“Shane?”

The demon cracked his eyes open and saw that it had gotten dark and that the credits were rolling, “Hmm, sorry, I must have dozed off,” he said, rolling his shoulders and looked down at the coffee table and saw that their food had been cleared away.

 “Don’t worry about it, you did seem extremely tired today,” Ryan shrugged off his apology.  “C’mon, let’s flip the couch out.”

Shane had been tired and it was worrying, as he thought his vessel was giving out; he hadn’t done much of anything to make it weak to the point he couldn’t manipulate it, and the vessel was fairly young, Madej possessed Shane when the boy had been 20 in college, going in his third year of schooling, which Madej had finished for him, what a waste it would have been, now it’s just the student loans that are weighing him down.

Ugh, being human was terribly taxing.

He moved the coffee table aside as Ryan pulled out the mattress and walked over to his linen closet and pulled out a sheet, a blanket, and a couple of pillows for his friend.

Ryan placed the linens down, “Do you need anything before I go to bed?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Shane told him, he was already dragging the sheet on and struggled on a little, Ryan was giggling softly and helped as the sheet kept snapping free and Shane was less than a second of just setting the thing on fire.  He finally flopped down on the bed face down with a heavy, tired sigh, “Coma time,” he said, voice muffled by the pillow.

His human chuckled in agreement, “I’ll see you in the morning, Bigfoot,” Ryan said and headed to his bedroom to return in for the night.

Shane shucked off his pants and socks, leaving himself in his T-shirt and boxers, he wiggled under the covers and rested his head down onto the pillows, he was facing the front door, he wasn’t tired and he hated it, as he would have random moments of strong fatigue and then other times he would stay awake for weeks straight; tonight seemed to be one of those nights where he would just stare into the darkness until the sun rose.

  _I suppose I could just read up on this poltergeist house._ Shane thought as he rolled over in the pullout bed and reached to grab his pants that were just left on the ground and he pulled his phone to him and Googled their destination and settled for the long night.

Shane exhaled through his nose when he got halfway through the article; most of it seemed like bullshit, but an uneasy feeling settled into his gut, which was rare for him, as he was a demon and nothing made him uneasy, he made other entities fuck off.

He looked at Ryan’s bedroom door that was open just a sliver, but just enough that Shane could feel that Ryan’s aura was dulled, dormant, and slumbering peacefully; he feared that there was a day that Ryan would get hurt, where it would be too much for him and would never be at ease as he was now; Shane would never forgive himself for the rest of his cursed spirit if that happened to Ryan.

He swore to himself that he would be the most amazing demonic guardian angel that ever existed in the history of his species of Hell and the righteous, winged guardians of the Pearly Gates.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a quick proofread, but forgive me if there's any spelling mistakes.
> 
> Thanks for reading and leaving comments/kudos! I was super nervous to post this fic, but all I've gotten so far is positive feedback, thank you all!!! c:

Shane blinked awake when he heard loud clattering and a low swear, he instantly rolled onto all fours, blackened eyes trained at the source, until he could feel that it was Ryan in the kitchen and not an intruder or a supernatural creature.  He sat down with a sigh and rubbed the sleep from his now normal eyes; he didn’t even remember falling asleep, which was dangerous.

“You awake?” Ryan poked his head out of the kitchen. “Sorry if I woke you, I wanted to make us breakfast…but either I drop everything or burn it,” Ryan sighed. 

“I’d rather wake up to clattering than a fire,” Shane chuckled at Ryan’s pout.  He stretched his arms above his head and rolled his shoulders a bit before getting out of bed and wandered into the kitchen after Ryan, who still had messy hair and sleep creases on his face from his pillow. 

Ryan was mixing pancake batter and Shane started snatching ingredients for omelets, “You don’t care for eggs,” Ryan commented.

“Yea, but you do, trade off, make me pancakes, I’ll make you an omelet,” Shane shrugged to him.  “I’ll still eat them, even if they’re a little on the crispy side.”

 “Fair enough, I’ll try not to have them chip a tooth,” Ryan promised. 

As Shane was whisking the eggs, he tried extremely hard not to think about how domestic his life could be had he tried for any relationships, he glanced over to Ryan, who was intently staring at the batter that he was carefully pouring into his skillet and he chuckled softly to himself.

“Shut up, I’m trying not to mentally scar you from pancakes,” Ryan scowled at him and waved his spatula threateningly when Shane just continued to smirk at him.  He was slightly annoyed that Shane looked practically a natural at cooking, “Do this often?”

“Back at home,” Shane said, recalling his vessel’s memories back in Illinois helping his mother cook during the holidays.  He added the already cut vegetables into the omelet and carefully flipped one side over and flipped it onto a plate, he glanced over to the pan that Ryan wasn’t paying attention to, “Pancakes are burning,” he said nonchalantly.

“Fuck!” Ryan shrilled and flipped it over; it was a dark brown, but still edible thankfully.

“I’ll take over,” Shane nudged him over with his hip slightly and handed Ryan the plate with the omelet.  “Go eat,” he told Ryan as he flipped the pancake onto a plate and started to make a couple more for himself.

Ryan grumbled softly at being told what to do, but cooking wasn’t his forte, so he sulked off to his small dining table and started to nibble at his breakfast.  He wasn’t alone long as Shane dropped into the chair across from him, handling two cups of juice and his plate of food, “You’re magic.”

“Nah,” Shane murmured, sliding a cup to Ryan and took a drink from his own before cutting into his pancakes. 

“You never did tell me how you felt about the new location that we are going to,” Ryan said after a moment of silence.  “Are you sure you want to go there?”

“I don’t see why not,” Shane shrugged at him.  He pointed at Ryan with his fork, “Unsolved is your baby, and if you think that you’ll find something, by all means, whatever it takes to prove you wrong, I’ll go to every haunted place in the world.”

Ryan rolled his eyes at the smug look on Shane’s face, “Whatever you say, just remember who’s feeding you.”

“Actually, _I_ fed you,” Shane reminded him cheekily, giving him a wink when Ryan just scowled at him and shoveled his breakfast into his mouth.  “But, it does sound fun.  I read some information on this place, pretty _spooky_!  Lots of animal sacrifices, human blood rituals, dark magic summons, all that fun jazz.  Sounds like my type of place to be on Saturday night.”

“You’re insane,” Ryan laughed.  “I’ll honestly be surprised if we don’t get anything.”

“You really want to dabble with these demons?” Shane inquired him.

“I mean, all demons are the same; vile creatures of the below, feasting on the fear of people, it can’t get any worse,” Ryan shrugged at him as he looked down to stab at more of his food, which he didn’t notice the frown that Shane was sporting.

Instead of answering, Shane sipped at his orange juice.  “We’re heading out Monday, you said?” he asked.

“Yea, crash until Tuesday morning and then we were given the rest of the day to edit our footage and just chill,” Ryan responded.  “That sound okay?”

“Sounds like a plan, Stan,” Shane agreed and they both gave a toast with their cups.

~~~

Shane ended up leaving a couple hours later, he was going to take care of a few errands and then binge some Netflix for the remaining weekend.  He said he’d text Ryan later and Ryan said that he’d get their travel plans ready for them, which Shane was deeply appreciative for, as he hated making scheduled plans.

He took an Uber back home and when he got there, he was walking to his apartment and he had just reached the front door when he felt another presence near him, he looked over to his left where a bus bench resided and he saw a middle-aged man sitting there, staring at Shane, the man’s eyes flickered gold, and Shane wasn’t threatened; this demon was lower than Madej.

“The Higher Council is requesting your audience,” the demon said, slowly approaching Shane.

“A messenger?” Shane said in mock shock, he turned away from the front door.  He saw the demon man scowl at his mocking tone, “They should know by now that I want nothing to do with them.  I am going to remain here until I feel like returning, which…well, won’t be for a long time.”

The messenger demon stood annoyed, “They’ve requested you back and you will obey.”

“If they need me so badly, they would have appeared themselves, not sending a lackey I can banish with a snap of my fingers,” Shane snarled.

“Madej,” the messenger hissed, but physical recoiled by the surge of dark energy released from the higher demon.  He looked away, “They will not be pleased with your disobeying behavior.”

“They can stick it,” Shane growled, eyes blackening.  “ _Relinquo,_ ” he snarled, tone deepening into his authoritative voice.  He watched the lesser demon recoil in the vessel it was possessing before exiting in a smog of black smoke; Shane was grateful that there hadn’t been any passing humans as he watched the vessel collapse, and he wasn’t feeling generous to stick around and help the now free, but unconscious human. 

After he dropped, Shane stalked inside and headed up towards his apartment, willing himself to calm down before his energy broke anything else, as he heard already some startled gasps and cracking glass from inside other homes.

He took a calming breath as he turned his doorknob and stepped inside, his small Corgi, Scotty was happily wiggling when he walked through the door and he smiled and crouched down to give his pup some pats, “There’s my good boy,” Shane cooed.  “Let’s get your leash and go for a walk, huh?”

The Corgi wiggled happily, barely able to conceal his excitement.

“Hey, Stranger!”

Shane looked up at his roommate’s voice, “Good morning, Sara,” he smiled to her.  He stood to full height, “How was your night?”

“It was fine, Ella came over and she’s still sleeping,” Sara said.  Her curly, purple hair was a wild mess, she was still in her pajamas, and looked like she need coffee.  “I let Scotty out about 10 minutes ago, but I’m sure that he’s eager for a walk.”

“When isn’t he?” Shane mused.  “Thank you for letting him out.”

“Not a problem,” Sara smiled to him.  “So, how’s Ryan?”

“What’s with the cheeky tone, Sara?” Shane tilted his head. 

Sara wiggled her fingers, little heart sparks floated from them, “He’s an adorable, oblivious human.  Do you think he could cause you so much trouble and be the maker of that frown on your face?”

“Yes, I simply want to keep him safe through his paranormal journeys,” Shane rolled his eyes.  “You wouldn’t believe the dangers he manages to drag after himself and have to be demolished, but it’s the joy of his that makes it all the bearable,” he mused.

“Even if it’s just to say that the spirits aren’t real? Sara teased.  “Really, you should give him something every once in a while.”

“Hey, I did that!  And that damn demon in that house nearly followed Ryan home,” Shane huffed. 

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t worry so much if you, ya know, made a move, all ready?” Sara wiggled her eyebrows.  She stretched to her tiptoes with a loud yawn, “But it’s none of my bees on what you do, just keep your literal ray of sunshine happy and alive, because I can’t count how many people would be sad if he died.”

Shane stiffened, “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“I know,” Sara gave him a soft look.  “Go take your pupper on a walk.”

“Fine, but keep a lookout for any messenger demons, we had one lurking outside the building,” Shane told her. 

“Oh, great, more personal requests for you to return to your stupid council?” Sara grumbled, crossing her arms.

“Unfortunately so,” Shane sighed, he heard Scotty whine and was starting to pace.  “Okay, okay,” he cooed to his dog.  He gave Sara a serious look, “Watch after yourself, I don’t know how much longer they’ll let me overstep them.”

“I’m not some weak witch, Shane,” Sara reminded.  Purple sparks danced around her, the air thick with her controlled power; it would have any demon, spirit, or other supernatural creature running. 

“I know,” Shane murmured.  Sara told him that he better go walk Scotty before he left Shane in the dust, and Shane turned away and exited the apartment, Scotty trying to drag him quicker outside to the garden area, and when they did get outside, Shane didn’t see that man there anymore, he wondered if he had gotten help or woke up.

It was nearly early afternoon, but it still had a morning chill creeping up on him; he paid no mind to it, instead keeping a look around for any other messengers, but he doubted that he’d see another so quickly, as the Higher Council typically got the clue that Shane was low enough to murder of another demon, if irked.

He glanced down when Scotty was yipping at him and Shane let him wander around the park and Shane dropped to sit down on a bench.  Shane people watched, watching each individual expression, exclamation of excitement, or confusion.   He still found humans so fascinating, even if he had lived among them for nearly a decade at this point; he couldn’t remember the last time he thought of people other than now, as he couldn’t even remember his first life, before he was a demon, hell, he didn’t even remember what he had done wrong to become one.

Maybe he had too much hate as a human when he had been alive.  Could a person go to Hell for too much sarcasm?  Madej never lost his wit, his knife sharp tongue, scathing remarks, and cold indifference; he could be viciously cruel when he wanted, which was why he had a place among six other demons that made up the Higher Council.  On top of that, he was ancient, an old type of evil that existed for so long, some wondered if the Higher Council had once been angels with Lucifer before being cast out, because they sided with the Morning Star, rather than God.

Shane quietly scoffed to himself; he had nothing personal against Lucifer, despite him being Madej’s boss, the devil was closed off and emotionally disconnected, his hatred for humanity could never be rivaled; the former angel kept mostly to himself, looking like a literal fallen angel, golden flowing hair, rich crimson eyes, beautiful bronzed skin, looking like a straight up model, while sitting on his throne of blackened bones and used lesser demons as a footstool.

The demon’s thoughts were interrupted by his phone vibrating, he saw that it was a text from Ryan, it was a picture of Shane, sitting on the bench, looking pensive, while Scotty was laying across his shoes, chewing on a stick.  He turned towards the direction he thought the angle was from and sure enough, there stood Ryan, smiling and starting to jog over to him, “Can’t get sick of this mug, can you?” Shane mused.

“Shut up, I’m actually here because your dog is here,” Ryan huffed and knelt down, and his smiling increasing when Scotty yipped happily and started to wiggle excitedly to get pets from his second favorite person.

“Uh-huh,” Shane drawled, he chuckled when Ryan slapped his knee.  He still had a soft smile on his face, even though Ryan’s attention was zeroed on Scotty, “Do you have any plans for right now?”

“Why, can’t get sick of this mug?” Ryan teased, throwing Shane’s earlier words back at the demon.

“No,” Shane shrugged; he enjoyed watching the flush race up Ryan’s face.  “C’mon, there’s a coffee shop nearby,” he jerked his chin up where the main entrance of the park was.  “They’re pet friendly and I go there enough that they’re familiar with Scotty.”

“Shane, you’ve got a problem,” Ryan said getting back up to his feet, still struggling to have his face cooldown.  He saw that Shane made an effort to match his slower stride, given that Shane was a stupidly tall giant with legs for miles, “I’ve never saw you at this park before and I jog here every Saturday morning.”

“Wanted to take Scotty for walk and Sara had Ella over,” Shane responded.  “As much as I adore them, it’s getting a little annoying to see them making out against the fridge when I’m just trying to get milk for my cereal,” he sighed, while Ryan wheezed to the right of him.

“You poor soul,” Ryan giggled.  “Well, if you need to crash, my flip couch can support your boney ass, until you deem it safe to return to your apartment.”

Shane tried hard to ignore the warmth that flutter deep within; he wasn’t really human, so it was an odd sensation to feel this way; he mostly tried to play it off as happiness that he could keep Ryan safe from other supernatural creatures that were not Shane.  “I’ll keep that into consideration,” Shane replied.  He held the door open for Ryan when they reached the café, Scotty eagerly trotting behind Ryan.

“They have my favorite sandwich here,” Ryan observed, already heading into line.  He turned to Shane, “Were you aware of this?  You know I’m a creature of regular habit.”

“It crossed my mind, had I known that you jogged only a couple of minutes away from this place, I swear I would have brought it up,” Shane promised when Ryan was giving him a betrayed look. 

“Fine, I trust you,” Ryan forgave him, grinning when Shane looked truly flustered.  He ordered his food and a drink, moving to stand off to the side, Shane following him, not so immediately, as the cashier knew Shane was cooing over Scotty and came to their side to give Scotty some pats and treat.

“You could get anyone in the world because of your dog,” Ryan said when Shane finally shuffled over to join him.

“Maybe,” Shane agreed absentmindedly, his gaze swept over the general area and when he finally looked down at Ryan, his human was giving him an odd look.  “What?”

“You seem bothered, are you sure you’re okay?  You were like that when you left this morning,” Ryan said.  “Did something happen last night?”

“No, I’m good, _baby_ ,” Shane crooned, he saw Ryan immediately start to scowl at him at the pet-name. 

They got their food and drinks and made their way over to a free table that was luckily in the corner, Shane sat in the corner seat, so that he could keep a lookout, Ryan didn’t bring up the way that Shane had shifted into a tense stance again, as if he was preparing to be jumped.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, before Ryan looked from his food to Shane, who was mostly picking at his food, his train of thought elsewhere, and Ryan wondered why Shane was in such a distracted mood.

“Steven invited us to go for drinks tonight, if you want to go,” Ryan said, trying to get Shane to pay attention to him.  “He doesn’t have your number, so I’ll play messenger bird.”

Shane dragged his attention back to Ryan, “Who is all going to be there?”

“I dunno,” Ryan shrugged at him.  “Did you want to go?”

“Yea, I’ll stick around for a couple hours,” Shane told him.  “You want to carpool there?”

“Yea, we can do that, invite Sara and Ella too, if Steven hadn’t invited them yet,” Ryan said, pulling out his phone to text Steven his answer.  “Thanks for going, I didn’t want to go by myself.”

“You know everyone who’s there, you wouldn’t have been alone,” Shane reminded him.

“You know what I mean,” Ryan huffed.  “They’re probably gonna tease us for being glued to each other, but you can’t find Andrew alone without Steven being glued to him, or any of the Try Guys being alone either.”

“Think they’re in some weird seven-way relationship?” Shane raised an eyebrow and chuckled when Ryan started to laugh and cringe at the mental image.  He fed Scotty a tiny piece of meat from his own sandwich before tossing away the crusts and finished off his drink, Ryan was trailing after him, “I’ll see you tonight then,” Shane said when they left the café.

“Yea, uh, do you want me to come to your place, or do you wanna meet at mine?” Ryan asked.

While Shane did trust his sigils that he had placed on Ryan’s home, he would feel safer if he could watch over Sara, her girlfriend, and Ryan if they all just crashed at the apartment he and Sara shared.  He told Ryan to come to his apartment, “My place is closer to the bars.”

“True, I’ll be over at 8,” Ryan agreed.  He crouched down to give Scotty another petting, “Bye, Scotty,” he cooed and stood back up to give Shane a smile, “I’ll see you later, Dude.  Take a nap or something, maybe that’ll help your downcast mood.”

“Yea, I’ll try,” Shane’s smile was somewhat stiff.  He watched Ryan go off and he did a final sweep of the area, he couldn’t feel any other demonic presences and he tried to keep his own energy from twining with Ryan’s life force, afraid that some entity would track him down through Ryan.

He took a slow walk back to his apartment, mostly because Scotty stopped to sniff every little thing, and because Shane was lost in thought; there was still something so off about this new place that they were going too and how it specifically catered to what Ryan had been wanting to visit and with all the activity of messenger demons, it made Shane anxious.

When he returned, Sara was sitting on the couch, Ella curled up next to her, they both had a red solo cups filled with wine, “Don’t get too drunk, Steven invited all of us to drinks, by us, I mean Ryan, who invited me and you two,” he said as he knelt down to unclip Scotty’s leash and the dog shot off into the kitchen, Shane figured to go get a drink of water.

Sara cheered and Ella whined when her resting place on Sara’s lap had been jostled, “What time?”

“Ryan is coming over at 8, I figured we’d leave as soon as he showed up and we’re carpooling,” Shane stated.  He dropped onto the recliner with a sigh, “I’m going to nap before we take off,” he said.

“Fine, you old man,” Sara huffed.  She started to pull Ella up from the couch, “Get up, let’s shower and get ready!”

Shane rolled his eyes and kicked the footrest out and shut his eyes, he let himself tune out the rest of the sounds that were going on in his apartment.  The only sound and things he let his mind focus to was the keeping Ryan safe through their next Unsolved episode.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a little violence towards the middle area, but nothing graphic, just Shane throwing hands.
> 
> Thank you to all for reading/commenting/leaving kudos!! c:

Shane slowly opened his eyes when he heard distant giggling, he knew Ryan’s laughter from anywhere, even when he was only 1% functional.  He saw Ryan sitting on the couch, mushed between Sara and Ella, sipping on what Shane presumed to be alcohol, as Ryan’s cheeks were getting rosy.

“So Sleep Beauty awakens,” Sara said, she smirked at Shane, who simply gave her a stern look, before going back to her wine.  “We truly did try to wake you up, but you just refused.  It was like you died or something.”

“Unfortunate to be awake,” Shane muttered, eyes still half-lidded.  He glanced at the large decorative clock that hung over their TV, he saw that it was 8:30 at night; he must have been more exhausted than he thought, given that he slept for almost four hours; he would be annoyed that he had wasted almost his whole Saturday, but when you have infinity to live, wasting a weekend is practically on the backburner.

“At this point with all the weird behavior and sleeping like the dead, I’m starting to wonder if you’re possessed and if I should have Brother Carlos stop by,” Ryan laughed when he saw Shane cringe, not getting that it was a full flinch of despair, rather than just playing along.

That session with the terrifyingly loud priest had been the worst hour of Madej’s life, but he had asserted his authority that no, he was not going to leave his vessel, just because some priest told him to.  It would take more than an hour to get Madej to leave, he was after all, a very old soul, who had been around the block a few times.

Shane just hummed sleepily, “And what, scare yourself into thinking that I really am a demon?”

Ryan rolled his eyes, “You’d be the shittiest demon to exist, all you do is write weird fanfic about hotdogs and French fries and drink tea.”

Sara was laughing harder than her girlfriend, but the whole office thought she found things funnier than they were, which they found endearing, as they didn’t know that she was a witch and knew Shane’s secret.

“Speaking as if demons allegedly exist, then that means I’m a fun demon and fun demons exist,” Shane countered, moving to sit up and ruffled his hair a little to get it fluffed up again. 

“You’re a funny something,” Ryan agreed, almost mumbling it into his cup that he was finishing off before they left.  He heard Sara cooing something to Ella from behind him, who was giggling at whatever Sara had whispered to her, judging by Shane’s exasperated expression, he must know what it was, as it must have been a common thing he witnessed; he watched Shane get up and leave the living room, telling them that he’d be back in 15 minutes.

As soon as Shane left, Sara righted herself and grinned almost predatorily at Ryan and at that moment, Ryan knew he was fucked.

He wondered if Shane would find it weird if Ryan hid in the bathroom, while Shane was most likely showering at this point.

~~~

Shane was freshly showered and now in his bedroom, pulling on his favorite Buzzfeed sweater that had a Corgi shadow on it, his little Corgi pupper was curled up at the foot of his bed, snoozing away.  He was zipping up his jeans when his bedroom door slammed open unannounced and in came a flustered Ryan, who slammed the door shut and locked it, “Hey there, Buckaroo, anything you need to tell me or do before I get dressed?” he laughed nervously.

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan growled, his cheeks were still red.  “Sara is not some innocent girl, she’s a demon!”

Shane laughed loudly at Ryan’s shrill exclamation, “No, she’s just a perv, why what did she do now?  She’s extra dangerous when she’s been drinking.”

“I’ve already repressed what she’s said,” Ryan said, still standing with his back against the door, acting as if he had to hold it shut.  He stared wide eyed at Shane, “How does Ella deal with her when she’s in that mood?”

“Ella is worse than Sara, be grateful that she wasn’t the one who cornered you,” Shane said as he looped his belt through his pants.  Finally, he was lacing up his boots and combed through his hair one last time before deciding that he was ready, “Think you can manage her for the car ride there?” he asked, scratching at his chin; perhaps he should have trimmed up his beard a little…too late now.

“Sara is fucking terrifying,” Ryan stated firmly, while he still stood in place in front of Shane’s bedroom door, refusing to move.

“Well, either we leave and you deal with it, or we live here together and raise my fur child,” Shane said, looking back at Scotty, who sleepily blinked at them.  “I’m not afraid to convert to cannibalism.”

Ryan looked like he’d rather take his chances against Shane rather than deal with the stuff spewing from Sara’s mouth, but a nervous shiver rolled down his back, as if something within him was telling him not to challenge Shane, like Shane was something more than he presented himself to be. 

Shane watched the fight leave Ryan’s ridged stance and Shane withdrew some of the force he was exerting, “Come on,” he cajoled, “Sara isn’t that terrible, I’ll tell her to layoff.”

“I’m not a baby, Shane, I don’t need you to fight my battles for me,” Ryan huffed, stepping away from the door, he saw Shane raise an eyebrow in question.

“You sure fooled me,” Shane said as he exited his bedroom, Ryan punched him in the kidney at his comment, but Shane didn’t even flinch and only assumed that it fueled Ryan’s brief annoyance as the air seemed more bitter for a moment before fading.  He stood in the hall leading to the living room, Ryan still standing behind him, Sara and Ella were sitting on the couch, browsing through Sara’s phone, “Okay, kids,” Shane announced, gaining the two girls’ attention, “we’re rolling out, Sara, chill, Ryan has a dial that has a tolerance towards me, not you, so please don’t run off my closest and practically only friend, kay, thanks, let’s move.”

Sara rolled her eyes fondly, grabbed Ella’s hand and they walked towards the front door, Ella giggling along the way.

“Aren’t you just a knight in shining armor,” Ella teased Shane as he followed her out the door.

“A gangly giant of one,” Sara tossed over her shoulder and she heard Shane let out a soft exhale of quiet annoyance; she knew the demon hated provocative bickering, as he could only handle Ryan’s, as Ryan was human, bickering with another supernatural being was risky, as the demon already had a short fuse, Sara’s hair had been the cost of one of their less than playful arguments, which was why it was short and curly, when she used to wear it wavy and long.

They were of course better friends, Madej was much calmer, but he would still have his moments, like now, he was starting to get stressed and paranoid that a messenger demon or someone from the Higher Counsel would come for Madej personally; Sara knew the demon would feel terribly guilty if something happened to any of them, but Sara was strong, she could hold her own and protect her girlfriend, it was the lesser demons Sara might be worried about if anything were to happen to Ryan.

From what she gathered about Madej, he was an old demon, first created from possession and hatred itself, most likely from his human life, as life back then had been so much harder.  She remembered that he had hold her that he was much like a dragon: possessive of his cargo and bitter with any living creature under the sun.  Of course, his attitude had changed over how ever many years he is now, but Sara still knew there was a line with him; Madej was still dangerous, even if they were friends.

Sara blinked when she felt Ella tug playfully on her hair, “Hmm?”

“You were spaced out for a while,” Ella said, her eyebrows were furrowed slightly in concern, as Sara was almost always in a joyful attitude, she was only ever standoffish when she was worried.

“Oh, sorry,” Sara apologized, cheeks turning red for worrying her girlfriend.  “I was just thinking about tonight, if Shane will ditch us or not,” she teased, grinning at her friend, who looked at her briefly in the rearview mirror.

Ryan mumbled something softly to Shane in what sounded like a pleading tone and Shane laughed, shaking his head fondly at whatever his human friend had said, and Sara could only give Ryan a sour look behind his back, while Ella laughed at them.

They talked among themselves, Sara as already begging for them to do drunken karaoke, as the last time they did that, it resulted in a very drunk Shane and Ryan taking turns at singing “ _Shake, Shake, Shake Senora!”_ until the bar was closing for the day, and having to make them pile into an Uber, giggling like the Hyenas from _The Lion King_.

Ryan remembered that he had been mortified to find out that his good friend Helen had recorded the whole damn thing and uploaded it, but now, he could have cared less, it had been a fun night, despite that fact that he thought he had been about to shake hands with Death.

“No promises,” Shane said as he pulled into a parking spot.  He was first to exit out of his car, he twirled the keys around his finger as he waited for the others to pile out and let Sara and Ella lead the way inside the bar, they could already hear muffled karaoke music, bright, neon lights dancing through the windows, and people cheering from the inside.

Ryan had barely stepped through the door before Steven was in front of him, Steven was already mostly hammered, by the way his mile a minute speech was slurring, gesturing wildly, while almost spilling the contents of the cup he was offering to Ryan.

Steven excitedly waved to Shane, while Andrew stood behind him, trying to slow down his friend and stop him from doing something stupid, he offered them both an awkward wave, before melting into the crowd of people Steven had thrown himself into after Sara and Ella.

Ryan was already sipping at whatever Steven gave him, it was fruity and it was dangerous, so Ryan just slammed it back and ignored the way Shane’s eyes widened, “Go hard or go home,” Ryan hollered over the pounding music.

“Is that your inner frat boy talking?” Shane questioned, he watched Ryan laugh and he merely smiled.

“It never left!  C’mon, let’s get fucked up!” Ryan cheered and dragged Shane towards the bar.

~~~

A couple hours had passed, and Shane was having as much fun as an old as hell spirit could, he mostly spent his time leaning against the bar, slowly savoring the whiskey in his hand, while he watched friends, co-workers, and interns having their fun or making fools of themselves.

He heard Keith’s loud laughter from somewhere, he thought he saw his wife too, he saw Ned and Ariel sitting at the bar next to him, drinking and having fun, but he could tell they’d be leaving soon, as Ariel kept tucking he head under Ned’s chin, Zach had been standing off to the side, watching Eugene tear up the dancefloor with multiple partners before having Eugene come up to him, make him chug his drink and dragging Zach into the throng of people.

Macey, Ashly, and Quinta were standing near Shane, their faces were all red, from laughing and tossing back shots, and Shane immediately felt terrible for them for the following morning.

His eyes finally skirted over to Jen and Ryan, who were talking happily, before he suddenly found himself being looked at by the both of them, Jen had a teasing grin on her face as she and Ryan came over to him, they both held empty glasses and were probably getting another drink.

“You look like a miserable grandpa!” Jen laughed, pulling lightly at his sleeve. 

“You heathens and your disco,” Shane faked an old voice, making Ryan completely lose it.

Jen just rolled her eyes at Ryan, who was nearly doubled-over, “You know, people who have crushes tend to laugh harder at their crush’s jokes than others.”

“Or I’m just drunk and Shane is only funny when I’m not sober!” Ryan said loudly.  He stumbled towards the bar, nearly eating it if Shane hadn’t stepped in and steadied him by his shoulders, “Shudd’up,” he groaned when Shane just chuckled at him.

“Whatever,” Jen mused.  She dropped a wink at Shane, “Take care of him!  You know he’s a sensitive drunk!” she stated before getting another drink and moved off to join a conversation with Safiya and Freddie.

Shane ended up making Ryan sit down at a booth after Shane had ordered a water, and the demon was currently trying to make Ryan take a few sips and sober up a little, but Ryan was instantly trying to drink his bourbon or trying to make Shane drink it.

“You’re no fun!” Ryan whined when Shane finally took the drink from him and sat it on an empty table away from them.  He grimaced as he took a small sip of water, the disgusting transfer from sharp alcohol to bland tap water; he felt like his taste buds were trying to curdle.

“I’m trying to stop you from getting alcohol poisoning,” Shane declared.  “Or to at least stop you from fumbling around like an idiot.”

“You’re an idiot,” Ryan childishly shot back.  He blinked drunkenly when Shane didn’t counter back with something stupid and he frowned, he pulled at Shane’s sweater, “Hey, what’s…the matter with you?  You’re so weird!”

Shane felt himself getting hot under the collar and not from the small buzz he had, but from another entity that he could feel within the bar and he glowered at the lone woman standing far away, her dark eyes were locked with Shane’s.

“Shane!” Ryan shouted.

“What?” Shane snapped, whipping his attention back to the human yipping in his ear, he saw Ryan flinch back a little.  He exhaled slowly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap, I’m not feeling well,” he lied.

“Oh,” Ryan murmured, the whisper drowned out by the blaring music.  He gestured to the door, “Wanna go?”

Shane nodded, he shot Sara a quick text of the situation before having to help Ryan out of the booth.  He ignored the way Jen and Helen whistled at them when Shane had to keep an arm wrapped around Ryan’s shoulders to keep him standing and guide him out of the bar.

The demon bristled when he felt the demonic presence following them slowly, Shane bustled Ryan towards the car and mentally swore at himself for parking in a darker area, where the streetlights didn’t reach.

He had Ryan against the back-passenger door, the shorter man mumbling in confusion.  Shane was shushing him, while he fumbled with the fob, he glanced over his shoulder and saw the brunette vessel walking over to them leisurely, even from far away, Shane could see that her eyes were orange; she was still a lesser demon, but stronger than the last.

Ryan’s brow furrowed when he blearily saw a woman coming towards them, the moment she stepped into the unlit area of the parking lot, her eyes were like bright embers, “Wha?” he slurred.

“Ryan,” Shane called to him, he slowly gained the drunk man’s attention, he saw the drunken gob-smacked look on the human’s face.  “Do me a favor, nap this one out,” he said as he opened the door and had Ryan sit down, before tapping Ryan on the forehead, and watched Ryan fall backwards, unconscious into the car.  He adjusted Ryan quickly in the backseat, shut the door, and stood protectively between the possessed woman and where Ryan was, “Fuck off,” Shane growled, his hands clenching into fists.

“Madej,” the women’s voice hissed.  “The Higher—”

“Yea, yea, I heard the first 40 times,” Shane interrupted her with a snarl.

Before the other demon could even get another word in, Shane had lunged forward, his hand coiling around her throat as he slammed her up against a car, cutting off her air, her nails dug into his sleeves, but other than that, did no damage; her eyes blazed in anger as strangled, chopped words left her.

“Leave this human, do not come for me again,” Shane snarled, eyes blacked out at this point.  “I am _not_ returning,” his fingers tightened and he heard the demon gurgle, or it could have been the vessel, either way, Shane didn’t care.  He threw her to the side, the possessed human landed harshly into the gravel, she coughed and gasped for air, while glaring up at Shane.

“They will be displeased,” the woman rasped.

“Yea, well good thing I live to disappoint then,” Shane responded.  “Go on, be banished, before you truly piss me off,” he shooed them.

The demon gave one final growl before exiting the human, the now freed woman gasped as she passed out on the ground, energy spent. 

Shane glowered as he watched the cloud of darkness spiral into nothing in the night sky, he knew it wasn’t over just yet, and Shane wasn’t for sure how merciful he was going to be if another messenger demon crossed his path.

He drove home, hearing Ryan’s slow breathing soothed him somewhat, it calmed him, reminded him that he had done well and protected Ryan from harm, and that his heart would continue to beat for a while longer.

When he finally did arrive home, it was a little after 1 in the morning, the area around them was quiet, but a calm quietness, not as if something was holding their breath before leaping at them from the shadows.  Shane easily maneuvered Ryan out of the back of his car; Ryan weighed little to nothing in his arms, his human slumbered on easily, not even stirring when Scotty was yipping up a storm to be taken outside.

Shane promised his little Corgi that he’d be back in a moment, he took Ryan to his bedroom, removed the human’s shoes and his jacket, he took out Ryan’s phone and his wallet from his pockets before setting those on the bedside table and tucked him under the blankets before exiting his bedroom and went back to Scotty, which he then took his pup outside for a quick bathroom break before coming back inside.

The demon was rippling with annoyance that came back hotter than before, he heard Scotty whine before darting off to hide behind the couch; he couldn’t even feel bad for scaring the poor creature.  Shane let out a shaky exhale, willing himself to calm back down, as the fight had been over as quickly as it came, but he was still livid that they had the audacity to approach him, while he was taking care of his human.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and he took it out to see that Sara had just text him a few question marks and poorly written text, asking if he and Ryan were okay; Shane didn’t bother responding, he wasn’t fine at the moment and half of him wanted to go back to Hell just to rip some souls apart, but then Ryan would be in danger then.

Shane exhaled again, his shoulders relaxed somewhat and he made himself move to go back to his bedroom, he found Ryan still passed out on his side, the covers still pulled up to his chin.  Shane changed into a loose T-shirt and flannel pajama pants before crawling into bed as well, he let out a heavy sigh; tonight had been a close one and he hoped that Ryan didn’t remember anything, Madej would hate to place a memory block on Ryan, because that was an invasion of his personal health and he didn’t want to lose Ryan’s trust.

Ryan sleepily murmured something before falling silent and Shane kept quiet, he just let his eyes fall shut and figured that Ryan would probably wake up in a few hours or so, as his friend had a terrible sleeping pattern, no matter how exhausted or alcohol he consumed.

When and hour passed, Shane heard Sara and Ella stumbling their way in, giggling softly to themselves, Scotty had only lifted his head up from his paws from the edge that he slept on Shane’s bed, before going back to sleep, Shane heard Ryan murmur something again, but remained asleep that Shane was grateful for.

It was probably a couple hours later that Ryan finally shifted into a bleary consciousness, groaning softly, while Shane feigned sleep at his side.  Ryan blinked tiredly and gave an unfocused stare up at the ceiling, he scrubbed at his eyes and hissed quietly, he had passed out with his contacts in and his eyes were already irritated and gritty.

He rolled over and saw that he was next to Shane, who was facing him, but quiet; Ryan’s heart stuttered a little bit and the panic subsided when he saw that they both were still clothed, he really would have hated to ruin something between them because he got shit-faced.

Ryan slowly sat up and muffled another groan he looked over to the bedside table and found a bottle of water and a red Gatorade and a couple Advil; he quickly took those with the Gatorade before shifting to sip the water so he wouldn’t upset his stomach with the sweet flavored sports drink.  He shuffled out of Shane’s bed and went to his attached bathroom, washed his face, took out his contacts and pitched those, he checked the medicine cabinet and found his spare toothbrush and his spare glasses that he kept there, he brushed his teeth before putting that away, took care of business, washed his hands, and left the bathroom before shucking off his pants and threw them over Shane’s hamper.

“Shane?” Ryan whispered when he settled back down.  He heard Shane make a sleepy sound in questioning, but did nothing further, “Shane,” he said a little louder.

“Ryan,” Shane grumbled, running a hand down his face; he perfected the irritated, sleepy act.  “I didn’t hear anything, go to sleep,” he ordered, rolling over to put his back to Ryan; he heard the human snicker softly before shifting a little and settled down once again, growing silent, and Shane knew that only a minute had passed before he could hear the slow, even breaths coming from his friend.

Shane waited only a few more breaths before finally allowing himself to follow after; his dreams were nothing, but darkness, even so, darkness with nothing lurking nearby was something that Shane preferred; it meant that he was safe and nothing was coming to challenge him or threaten those he held dear.

He wondered how long this peace would last.


	4. Chapter 4

Shane was awake before anyone else, despite it being nearly 3 in the afternoon.  He had gotten out of bed around 10, showered and dressed for the day, packed a carryon, and even went to the Buzzfeed office to get their equipment, as their camera crew wasn’t going with them this time.   

Ryan slept on like the dead, Shane heard nothing from Sara’s room, and he knew all three of them would be feeling miserable, unless Sara used some of her magic to whisk a hangover away.

He would have to wake Ryan up shortly, as he got a notification on his phone that told him that their flight was tonight at 7 and he figured he’d wake Ryan after he had made some toast and try to get few bites and a couple sips of water or juice in him before they packed up.

Shane left a refrigerator note for Sara before putting bread in the toaster, he had it just placed on the plate when he heard someone shuffling towards him and he turned and saw Ryan, his friend had an ashy face, dark circles around his eyes, and his hair was a mess, “You’d be a terrible Disney Princess,” Shane greeted him.

“Shudd’up,” Ryan rasped.  He dropped to sit on a kitchen chair, shoved the heels of his hands into his eyes and groaned, “Why did you let me do that?”

“Because I can only handle frat Ryan for so long before I’m forcing drinks down your throat to get you to shut the fuck up,” Shane said as he placed the toast in front of Ryan.  “Eat a couple bites, drink some water, maybe take another couple Advil and shower.  You left a couple outfits here that you can change into and then we’re going to your place so you can pack a bag.”

“For what?” Ryan grumbled, getting tired of listening to Shane telling him what to do.

“We’re flying out, remember?” Shane said, placing a glass of water in front of Ryan and some Advil for him to take.

“Shit,” Ryan groaned.  “We have to stop at our office and get our equipment.”

“Already taken care of,” Shane said, “All packed by the front door.”

Ryan blinked in bewilderment before staring at the dry toast intently, “I hate to say it, but I’d be lost without your dumb face.”

“Yea, I know,” Shane smiled.

Ryan managed to stomach down a couple bites of dry toast after he had taken his Advil and drank a little bit more of water before shuffling off to Shane’s bathroom to get ready.

Shane quickly cleaned up and took Scotty outside for another quick walk, he will admit that he was getting anxious about their next destination, he needed to ask Ryan how he even found the place, because he had simply talked about the place, maybe he was just being overly paranoid, but he’d rather be safe than sorry, especially for Ryan’s sake.

When he got back home, he queued up an Uber to pick them up in 20 minutes, as he heard the shower water shut off.  He grabbed his carryon and placed it by the door and went to go find Ryan, who he found, dressed, damp hair, and groggily brushing his teeth, his spare glasses hadn’t been put on either yet.

“Uber will be here shortly to take us to your place,” Shane said when he leaned against the bathroom door frame.

Ryan spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth and the sink, humming tiredly at what Shane said.  He put on his glasses and tottered off to get his keys, wallet, and phone after he pulled on his shoes, “This is terrible, I hate myself.”

“To be fair, you picked the flight date to be today, instead of tomorrow,” Shane reminded.

“I wanted us to be situated and have plenty of time to a little more research before we went and did the interviewing,” Ryan huffed.  He was surprised to find his phone completely charged and his cheeks burned at how nice Shane was being, “Thanks,” he said, lifting his phone to show what he was talking about before putting it in his pocket.

Shane merely nodded at him, his phone vibrated and he told Ryan that it was time to go.

Ryan helped carry one of the equipment bags, as Shane took the other one and his carryon, they loaded up the stuff in the back of their driver’s trunk and piled in, the guy, Allen, was nice, he didn’t chat up too much, just asked them if they preferred a different route to take that they were familiar with.

When they got to Ryan’s, Ryan hustled out, leaving Shane to get the bags, as Ryan was in a hurry to pack everything and get another Uber trip to the airport.

Allen told Shane that his schedule was clear and that he could take them, so Shane didn’t have to unpack their bags after all, Shane was extremely grateful for his services and immediately gave him a good review, plus an extra tip for being generous.

Ryan came back out nearly 15 minutes later, face red from just bustling around, he had a few outfits, his laptop, his chargers, and toiletries.  He thanked Allen for sticking around before putting his stuff in the back with the rest of their stuff before clambering back in the backseat next to Shane.

“All set, bud?” Shane asked.

Ryan did a quick mental list before nodding, “Yea, anything else that I forgot, I can just pick up a market,” he said.

“All right, let’s roll Buckaroo,” Shane grinned, he heard Ryan’s sigh of exasperation.

 The trip would be half an hour or so, Ryan immediately clunked back out, resting the majority of his weight on Shane’s shoulder, Shane kept simple conversation with Allen that occasionally lapsed into a peaceful quietness.

Allen informed that they’d be at the airport in 10 minutes, and Shane took that as his queue to wake Ryan, who grumbled unhappily.

“We’re almost there, Ry,” Shane said, nudging his friend lightly again until Ryan was sitting up on his own and squinting tiredly out the passenger window. 

When they did roll up, Shane made quick work to get their stuff out the back, and he and Ryan both took an equipment bag to put it at bag check and kept their carryon bags with them.  They both were surprised at how quickly they got through without a hassle and soon were sitting at their gate, Ryan was checking his Twitter, Shane was on his phone, reading information about the Nocts’ house again, without Ryan knowing.

“Ryan,” Shane said, locking his phone and slid it into his pocket. 

“Yea?” Ryan said, turning his attention to his friend.

“I never did ask you how you heard of this place, it doesn’t seem like it’s a well-known location,” Shane said, keeping his tone intrigued.  “This doesn’t look like a haunted attraction, rather just someone’s house.  I know you said that some paranormal investigators went there, but there wasn’t much to read on.”

“Interested?” Ryan smiled cheekily.  He went back to Shane’s question, “Oh, it was actually Marcus Noct who contacted me.  At first, I wasn’t so sure, but I was curious, because we’re always looking for new places to explore, I read the email he sent me and read up the history, it seems legit.  I had spoken to him a few times and he seems like reliable person and I spoke to his wife too, she told me what she had experienced there.”

“And our supervisor just approved?” Shane asked, there was a twisting unease starting to settle back in his gut.

“Yea, freakishly fast too,” Ryan nodded.  “They must have thought it sounded like a good place, the house is pretty secluded, there aren’t any people over 10 miles both directions, it’s sorta nestled in the hills,” Ryan said.  He frowned when he saw that Shane suddenly seemed tense, “Why, what’s the matter?”

Shane shook his head, “Nothing,” he said a little too sharply.  He should have checked to see if there was still a regular practice, but even when he had still been in Hell, there hadn’t been any uproar about the Noct house, it seemed to be inactive for almost 50 years, why would Marcus Noct suddenly invite Ryan to his house to investigate?  Shane didn’t know if he was being too paranoid or not, they did always get requests to come and visit new locations, but this place was rather specific, it wasn’t just an allegedly haunted location where someone got murdered a nearly a hundred years ago, this house had been used as a portal from Hell to the living realm.

“Shane?”

The demon jumped slightly when he felt Ryan’s hand on his shoulder and he looked to him and saw that Ryan was looking at him worriedly.

“Are you all right, man?  Our flight is boarding,” Ryan said, standing up and gathered his stuff.

Every fiber in Shane’s body was telling him not to move, not to let Ryan go, Shane almost wanted to make himself sick so that it would be delayed, Shane would then plan to take a few sick days off, go to New Mexico himself and investigate the house before letting Ryan step foot onto the property.

Shane wondered how angry Ryan would be if he somehow convinced him that it wasn’t worth it, but his tongue remained dry and stuck in his mouth as he silently got his stuff and walked behind Ryan, through the ticket check and to their seats.  He was sitting in the aisle seat, his fingers dug into the armrests, he could still feel Ryan’s worried stare looking over him, “Ryan,” Shane suddenly blurted.

“What’s up big guy?” Ryan responded, trying to keep his tone light as he could clearly see the unease that was rolling off Shane in waves; his friend never acted like a nervous flyer until now.

“There’s something you should know,” Shane continued quietly, his stomach was flipping and knotting itself up; humans were not to know of any supernatural creatures, it was an unspoken rule and Madej knew if he told Ryan the truth, it wouldn’t be good for either of them, he would have to have to block Ryan’s memory of the confession after he managed to get Ryan out of this dangerous trip, and then Madej would be forced to leave Ryan, he would have to replace all the memories of him with another person, the Internet would be tricky; it could be done, but Madej didn’t want to leave Ryan.

Ryan continued to look at Shane expectantly before his concentration was interrupted and he was startled by the captain coming over the speaker, he turned back to look at Shane and to his bewilderment, Shane wasn’t sitting next to him anymore, he poked his head up and he saw Shane shuffling quickly to the bathroom and he frowned before settling back into his seat.

Shane returned a few minutes later before they were going to take off, he sat down and clipped his seatbelt on, Ryan had already put his pillow against the window and was resting, as he still was feeling awful from his hangover.

“You came back,” Ryan said, sitting back up and closer to him, as it was pretty loud on the plane.  “What were you going to tell me?”

Shane chewed the inside of his cheek, “Uhh, scarfed some shady hotdogs; I’ll never learn,” he lied.

Ryan cackled, “Dude, stop doing that to yourself!”

“Haha…yea,” Shane shifted uneasily.  “I might be up and down for the flight, so you can just go ahead and sleep until we land.”

“Sure thing, just remember to get a water or something when our flight attendant stops by,” Ryan said, snuggling into his pillow.

Shane shakily exhaled as he slumped in his seat; this ghost hunt was going to be a hot one, quite literally.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty, I'm gonna be wrapping this fic up in a chapter or two, idk yet.
> 
> Early thanks to you all for who gave this fic a chance, left a comment, or kudos, or both!! c:

Ryan whined when he was being shaken awake and he squinted tiredly at the culprit who dared to disturb his rest.  He realized that it was Shane and calmed somewhat, “Did we land?”

“We’re the last on here,” Shane said, getting up and getting their stuff down from above their seats. 

“You could have woken me as we were landing,” Ryan said, quickly getting out of his seat; he felt like he was still dreaming.  He stumbled after Shane, groggily nodded to the flight attendant who smiled to them and thanked them for flying with them, and had to cling to the back of Shane’s shirt when they were in the throng of people, who were bustling by.

Shane took them to baggage claim and stood off to the side, “Did you schedule an Uber or anything for us?”

“Car rental,” Ryan said.  “I figured it would be more convenient for us,” he added and saw that Shane was just nodding at whatever he was saying, his face was blank, eyes slightly glazed.  “How’s your stomach?”

“What?” Shane frowned, coming back to attention.

“Your stomach...?  Because you ate bad hotdogs, _again_?” Ryan slowly reminded him.

“I’m fine, you know, just dealing with the betrayal of the hotdogs,” Shane shrugged at him, his smile was a little tense.

Ryan just cocked his head slightly, “Dude, are you sure that you’re okay?  You’ve been weird for the last few days.  If you didn’t want to come here, you could have just said something.”

Shane was shaking his head, “No, don’t worry about it, I’m just overthinking per usual.  I, uh, get antsy when we travel to new locations, you know?  Unfamiliar territory, just waiting to get jumped!”

“You’re paranoid,” Ryan smiled.  “No one would hurt you.  You weren’t like this when we went to an abandoned hospital.”

“Yea, but it was a touristy place and we were still near civilization,” Shane argued.  “This house is in the fucking mountains!”

“We have a guide, the owner, remember?” Ryan reminded him, stepping forward when he saw their equipment coming through.  “I honestly had no idea that you were this much of a spaz,” he mused.

“Yea,” Shane said bitterly, “there’s a lot you don’t know,” he added more quietly, inaudible to Ryan.

~~~

They got their rental car under 30 minutes, despite the stupidly, long line, which they both were grateful for.  Ryan was still feeling like he could sleep the rest of the day away, so he’d probably do that after he contacted Marcus once they got to their hotel, Shane was just getting annoyed with his internal war and all the jittery energy all the humans were letting off in drowning waves.

Ryan still drove; it was tradition at this point, but he didn’t mind, because he was slightly afraid of Shane being behind the wheel, as he was a bit of a speed demon.  He put the directions to their hotel in his phone before following his GPS; Shane was still being uncharacteristically quiet next to him for so long that Ryan had to turn the radio on to cancel the silence.

When they had reached their hotel, Ryan checked them in, while Shane carried the bags, which he kept fending off Ryan from helping him.  He followed his shorter friend to where their room was and placed their bags by the bathroom door once they were in.

Ryan immediately turned the AC on and Shane sat down with a quiet huff, and again, the only sound between them was the buzzing of the AC kicking on and blowing out cold air to cool them from the heat that followed them inside.

“Shane,” Ryan sighed, “you won’t talk to me.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Ryan,” Shane said, voice tight.  He rose up suddenly, “I wonder if they have tea here, do you want anything?”

“No thanks,” Ryan muttered.  “I’m going to call Marcus and tell him that we made it to our hotel that we’ll meet him tomorrow morning for an interview,” he said, gauging Shane’s reaction to those words and to his not surprise, Shane had tensed.  “Do you know Marcus?”

“No,” Shane shook his head.  “Why do you ask?”

“Because you get all squirmy when I mention him,” Ryan stated, crossing his arms as he gave Shane a hard stare.

Shane laughed, “Ryan, your eyes are playing tricks on you.  I’ll be back later, I’ll pick us up something to eat,” he said as he walked towards the door.

“Yea, sure,” Ryan’s tone was still annoyed.

Shane quickly left their room and fled the hotel, as there were multiple stores, bars, and fast food chains around and he could easily get something.  He ignored those and pulled out his phone, he clicked the saved link of the house and searched the directions and he saw that it was an hour away and where they were staying was the closest hotel, “This could be the most fucking perfect trap,” he growled when he looked around the surrounding area of the house, it was nothing but desert and mountains for miles.

His skin felt too tight and his mouth went dry at how bad things could get if something were to show itself to them.  He looked over Marcus and Amanda Noct, they were just average looking Marcus looked too much like the first cult born summoner; he wondered if it was a convenience that Marcus even had a faded scar on his neck where Madej had slashed his great-grandfather times seven at.  If he was being completely honest, Amanda looked dead inside and he wondered if she had spirits constantly following her, living off her energy, and he wouldn’t let that happen to Ryan; he would try to help this woman.

Madej just got a weird vibe about the whole thing and usually his possessed gut feelings were right, and he would have to keep on high alert the whole time, he wouldn’t be too upset even if nothing happened, but Madej didn’t play too kindly with other demons, so he’d rather be safe than sorry.

~~~

Ryan stirred when he heard his hotel room door opening and in shuffled Shane.  He squinted at the alarm clock next to him and he saw that Shane had been gone for almost two hours, “Get lost?” he murmured, blinking sleepily at his friend, who placed a Chipotle bag on his bedside table.

“Something like that,” Shane replied, digging into his own food.  He glanced at Ryan, “So, what did Marcus say?”

Ryan pushed himself up with a yawn and rubbed at his eyes before grabbing his glasses, “He’ll meet us there tomorrow, on the property.  Is that okay?”

“Yea, why wouldn’t it be?” Shane asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because originally, he had asked to carpool, but I explained to him that he wouldn’t have a way to leave, as we’re crashing there,” Ryan replied.  “And not to mention, you looked either pissed as fuck or sick at the thought of meeting this guy.”

Shane frowned; he had forgotten that they were going to sleep there too, “Oh…right,” he picked at his steak absentmindedly, while Ryan started to much on his burrito.

Ryan looked at Shane, “Do you not want to stay there?”

“That’s not it, Ryan,” Shane shook his head.  “You know that I think all of this is bullshit, but…I just feel like there’s something not right here.”

“Are you still paranoid about being in a new location?” Ryan asked him curiously, his tone was completely sincere.

“Ever have a really bad gut feeling?” Shane asked him, avoiding Ryan’s question.  “To the point that you’re just sick with worry about the unspeakable that may happen because you didn’t trust that feeling?”

“Mostly ever time we go investigate,” Ryan told him.  “But we’re always fine in the end, which is why I know that we’ll be okay this time too.  Your skepticism keeps me sane, your sarcastic remarks stop my mind from melting, and just how you call out stupid bullshit as you see it.  Really, the one time I was like that was in the Sallie House, but you just being your skeptic, asshole self, made it more tolerable.”

“That is literally the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me in our four years of friendship, Bergara,” Shane blinked.  “My word, only true confessions come out in horror movies when shit is about to hit the fan!”

“Well, come what may,” Ryan shrugged at him.

“You can’t quote _Moulin Rouge_ at me and not expect me to call you out,” Shane huffed.

“What can I say?  I know you, big guy, you’re a true softy, you’re not this man of many masks at you claim; you’re Shane Alexander Madej,” Ryan mused.  “You can always express your concerns, you’re my friend, as much as it pains me to say, but this whole show would suck without having you here.”

Shane felt his face starting to grow warm and there was an annoying stinging moisture behind his eyes; never had he ever felt the urge to cry and he cleared his throat, hastily looking away, “Cool it, Bergara, I have a reputation,” he said gruffly.

Ryan just chuckled when he saw the color flare up Shane neck to his face.  He went back to eating up on his burrito, while Shane just continued to poke at his burrito bowl, until Ryan said that he was going to take a shower and head to bed.

Shane ended up sticking his half-eaten food into the minifridge and laid back down after he changed into his sleep flannel pants and a loose shirt and curled under the covers, the cold air had him pull the blankets up until only his eyes were visible and he was comfortable; it didn’t take him to nod off, the only thing he faintly remembered hearing was the bathroom door opening and Ryan stumbled out to crash onto his own bed.

The last thing the demon heard was Ryan’s sleepy call of good night and Shane was floating in darkness.

~~~

“Shane?  Shane!”

Madej lurched up straight when hands were on him, he rolled the person under him, pinning them to his bed, his eyes almost flickering black, until he heard Ryan’s startled gasp from below him and he quickly released his friend, “Shit, sorry, are you okay?”

“Geez, man, have you been working out?” Ryan chuckled nervously, rolling his shoulder a little to flex out the pain.  He carefully sat up, while Shane backed off completely off the bed, he saw Shane run a quick hand down his face, mumble about getting in the shower, before he was left alone.  Ryan frowned at how odd Shane was acting and truth be told, it did hurt his feelings that Shane was keeping quiet about what was the matter.

He knew it was this trip, but he didn’t know why, as Shane never had any other problem with the haunted places they went to; it was just this one.  Ryan huffed as he still lied there on his back, glaring up at the ceiling, he could hear the shower running and he rolled onto his side to leer at the closed bedroom door and he wondered if he should just back off, play indifferent until Shane decided that Ryan was worth the time to talk about what his problem was.

Ryan felt like a passive-aggressive boyfriend and he rolled off Shane’s bed at that thought, thudding hard onto the poorly cushioned carpet, he heard Shane’s muffled voice, “I’m fine!” he shouted and sat up, rubbing the back of his head from where it clipped the bedside table.

The stars faded from his vision, but his annoyance still lingered.

He must have sat there longer than he thought because Shane stepped out in a towel, raised an eyebrow at him, snatched his suitcase, and went back into the bathroom to get changed, and Ryan muffled his annoyed groan in his own pillow and didn’t lift his head until he felt Shane poking him in his side, telling him that he wanted breakfast and that Ryan should hurry, unless Ryan wanted to become breakfast, to which, he growled at Shane, but got up to get ready.

Ryan made it quick as he could tell that Shane was getting a little growly from being hungry, which he could relate to.  They left after packing their equipment into their rental and took off to get breakfast burritos, and while they were getting food, Ryan contacted Marcus and told him that they’d be heading to the house’s location in 30 minutes.

Shane took note that Ryan seemed extra quiet, studying his phone intently, and refused to look up at Shane even when he was answering Shane in conversation.  He rested his chin in his hand, “Are you alright?  Are you bothered because of this morning?”

“This morning?” Ryan mumbled in question, eyes still glued to his phone.

“Because I practically attacked you and can totally take you down in a fight?” Shane prompted him; he hid his victorious smirk when Ryan’s eyes shot up to meet his, “Oh, you’re finally looking at me.”

“Shut up, you caught me by surprise and what of it?  You don’t look at me during 80% of our conversations; I figured long periods of eye contact weirded you out or something,” Ryan grumbled at him, balling up his burrito wrapper in frustration.

“I can look more if you want,” Shane told him; he mostly kept his eyes adverted in case his eyes became darker, he only really looked at Ryan during their explorations because the area was so dark and Ryan wouldn’t be able to see a change in his eyes.

Ryan’s cheeks grew slightly pinkish, “Shut up, Shane.”

“What?  I only want to make you less angry with me, even though I’m not completely sure why you’re upset to begin with,” Shane replied.

“Because you’re hiding something else from me!  You think you’re so chill and suave and that nothing ever bothers you!  I’ve known you for nearly five years, Shane, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t care to notice how weird you’ve been towards me?” Ryan hissed.  He saw Shane’s face become void of emotion and Ryan just gritted his teeth and stood up to throw out his trash, he was startled when Shane had grabbed his wrist, keeping him sitting, and it unnerved him at how strong Shane was, as his grip didn’t even change when Ryan tried to twist out of his hold.

Shane leaned close, his eyes were dark as ever, and his expression was serious, “Ryan, I just need you to trust me and ignore whatever you think is wrong with me.  I swear it’s nothing against you, or whatever you think it is, just please trust me.”

“Trust you with what?” Ryan demanded, temper still flaring hot.

“With whatever happens tonight, just trust me,” Shane stated.

Ryan felt the spell break between them when Shane let go of him, his skin was oddly hot where Shane held him and he could only follow after Shane out of the fast food restaurant, “Fine,” he said as he got into the driver’s seat.  “Then you have to tell me everything when we’re done here; I don’t like how’ve you been so closed off.”

“Whatever you want,” Shane replied softly, eyes fixed ahead when they started to drive out of the small town.

Already he could feel the dark energy getting closer; it took every fiber in Shane’s power not to stop the car and turn them around, this was now a fight that Madej would see to the end; he’d make sure that he’d come out on top, stopping whatever force was at play and keep his human safe.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this fic is done!!!!!!  
> I tried to make it not too rushed, but I was afraid if I didn't get it done now, I'd be updating like once every few months or lose interest.  
> Thank you to all who left comments and kudos or gave this fic a chance! It means a lot! c:  
> Maybe I'll do some future fics for them, but idk yet, just depends if inspiration decides to deck me. 
> 
> WARNING!!!!!!: Please be cautious towards the middle of this chapter, there is a graphic fight, blood, attempt of murder, murder of minor character, all that jazz. I tried my hand at writing a fight scene, which I had originally not planned, because I'm shit at writing lmao

Madej was never a confrontational creature, despite being a demon, he usually just sat in the back until the fight came to him and then he just ripped people to pieces.  He prided himself in that, as it gave him the threat of being strong, but laid back as well, seemingly to be unbothered by anything the world or Hell threw his way.

He was fine until they stepped foot out of the car and into the warm, dusty, deserted location of the Portal to Hell house, and he met eyes with Marcus, and Madej wanted to do nothing except rip Marcus’ jaw from his face and eat the demonic aura the asshole demon was flaunting like a badge of honor.

The need to murder Marcus in broad daylight only increased when the other demon shifted his focus from Madej to Ryan and the way his posture shifted like an apex predator about to pounce on its prey; Shane might have not been so subtly able to shift himself in front of Ryan, who still looked up at him with a face of confusion.

The demon inhabiting Marcus’ body grinned to them, looking approachable to most, unless you were Madej and could see the monster underneath the flesh.

Shane eyed Marcus as the three of them met in the middle, he looked around them briefly, expecting another person, like Amanda, to be there waiting as well, but from what Shane could feel and see, it was just them in the surrounding area, even the house seemed oddly dormant, even though he could still feel the energy cackling in the dry air.

“Hey, welcome,” Marcus greeted them, he shook their hands.

Shane held back a wince when the other demon tried to crush his hand.

“Thanks for having us,” Ryan smiled.  “Would you care to do a quick interview with us, and maybe take us through a day tour of the house?  Only if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure!” Marcus chirped.  “It’ll just be me here today, Amanda, my wife, she wasn’t feeling too well, so she stayed home.”

Shane shifted his gaze to the house at the mention of his wife, he never met Amanda, but could strangely feel “Amanda” energy and he thought he saw her ghostly face in the window that faded away, Ryan just told Marcus that he hoped she felt better before going back to the car, out of earshot of the two demons.

“You murdered her,” Shane stated simply, eyeing the other demon in front of him. 

“Humans, they’re needy creatures,” the demon shrugged.  “Got tired of playing like the good human I was supposed to be.  Really, who has the time to play the devoted significant other?”

“Shane!” Ryan shouted from where he was standing at the trunk of the car, dragging out one bag.  “Can you grab the other bag?”

“Apparently you have the time,” the other demon cackled, just grinning at the way Shane leered at him.

“Keep away from him,” Shane snarled lowly and backed away, schooling his expression as he walked back to where Ryan was to grab the other equipment bag.

“Thanks,” Ryan smiled to him, hoisting the bag on his shoulder.  “I figured we could start the interview out here and move it in the house.”

“Feeling so brave?” Shane asked, but his tone lacked the teasing vibe, it came out more aggressive than usual that had Ryan frowning at him.  “Do you want an actual camera set up outside, or just our usual handheld ones?”

“Handheld is fine,” Ryan mumbled, looking away from Shane.  He approached Marcus again, who hadn’t moved, in the corner of his eye, he saw Shane lock his shoulders up again, “We’ll just do a quick interview out here and move into the house, sound okay?”

“Of course!” Marcus’ enthusiasm was pissing Shane off and unnerving Ryan simultaneously.

Shane zoned out while he was filming, most of it was focusing on Marcus and sending off a ‘fuck off’ vibe anytime Marcus swerved into Shane’s lane and got too close to Ryan, even if it was just looking too long.  He automatically started to trail after Ryan when the two started to walk towards the demonic house and Shane could feel a disgusted shiver roll up his spine, his skin becoming clammy.

Ryan froze at the porch steps, he felt…nervous, more nervous than he was at the Sallie house; his stomach churned and before he could make himself go up, Shane swept on by, his face was serious, lips drawn thin, and his eyes were trained on the door, like he was trying to square up with it, which caused a startled giggle to come from him at the thought of Shane fighting a door, and he drew attention to himself, “Nervous,” Ryan said shyly; he ducked his head at the fond smile that Shane gave him.

“No need to be,” Shane said, he offered his hand to Ryan, his eyes were warm, “all of this is bullshit anyway,” he slid his gaze to Marcus, his gaze not so fond this time.

“To each their own,” Marcus shrugged, rocking back on his heels like a bored child.

Ryan rolled his eyes at the exchange of words, while he took Shane’s offered hand, as the step towards the top was starting to sink and he didn’t want to fall through.  He stood on the porch and noticed that every time he shifted his stance, Shane followed, keeping his body as a direct shield between Ryan and the door.

Really, what the hell was the matter with Shane and why was he acting like this?  If it was Marcus, Ryan could agree that he was a strange one, having a child like glee while he prattled on about animal sacrifices, newborns being put on the blood alter for a blessing of their dark god, blood rituals, and the fact that someone of the original cult had actually died down in the house’s cellar from demonic possession and the vessel being too weak to hold the energy _—allegedly,_ Marcus added, but the smirk on his face made Ryan still inch back closer to Shane.

At this point, Ryan was ready to say fuck it and leave and run back to Father Thomas, because he wasn’t for sure if he could handle this type of demonic activity.  If anything, he could tell that Shane was also fed up, perhaps not with the same reasoning as Ryan, but nonetheless, Shane looked anything but amused, which again, was odd on his part, because at least he’d be taking it in with faked interest and mocking humor that only Ryan could pick up.

Marcus was now wanting to bring them inside, he walked by them, Shane resisted the urge to lash out, and as soon as that door opened, Shane knew that this was going from bad to worse and the only thing he could do was trail behind Ryan, staring down Marcus as he went by.

“This place…is very…” Ryan didn’t know how to explain it in one word, as he felt unwanted, sick, exhausted, and prickly all over.  He noticed that Shane was practically flanking him at this point, he glanced up at him and saw that Shane was nearly leering at Marcus, who once again, was going on about facts of the house, without being prompted.

For Shane, it was like stepping in a whole different dimension, he could vaguely hear the howling of the past, the old, wooden floor was nearly pulsating with energy.  He saw that there were faint scratches clawed into the wood, most of them were by the basement door and he could only imagine the countless of people who had been snatched, kicking and screaming into the basement.

The walls were sallow, soot residue lined the ceiling, there were no decorations, little to no furniture, there was an old couch, it was covered with a motheaten sheet, a dusty lamp on the floor in the corner, and a wooden chair, thick, discolored dark green curtains covered the windows, and that was all that was in the living room.

“You said that you lived here with your wife?” Shane asked, interrupting whatever Marcus was saying.

Ryan blinked in confusion when he took in the room and he thought it looked almost abandoned.

Marcus gave him a sharp grin, “Not for long, perhaps a couple weeks, before we forced to leave because of…some rather rude houseguests.  I suppose my old family line could care less of their blood-kin.”

“I figured it would be demons, unless…your family welcomed them as such?” Ryan questioned him hesitantly. 

“Yes, I do believe they did,” Marcus nodded, looking like he knew an inside joke that no one would know, except for Shane, who scoffed under his breath.  He beckoned them forth, “Come, let’s visit where the magic actually happened.”

Ryan took a shaky step forward, before his shoulder was grabbed and Shane pulled him back, “What?” he asked.

“No, we’re not going,” Shane wasn’t looking at Ryan, he was practically seething, glaring at Marcus now.  “Ryan, go to the car,” he urged his human, before turning his glare back to Marcus, “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I don’t react kindly to those with ill intentions.”

“Aww, brother, you don’t trust me?” Marcus tilted his head.

Ryan opened his mouth to ask what the hell were they talking about and gapped when Shane’s hand flexed that was holding the handheld camera that promptly shattered in his hold, the main bit fell to the floor with a loud clatter

“I am no kin of yours,” Shane snarled.  “What is it that you want?” he demanded.

The amusement slid off Marcus’ face, his face now void of any expression, “You know why I am here, Madej.”

Ryan felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise up at the eerie drawl of Marcus’ tone, he physically flinched back into Shane, who still gripped his shoulder with a stern grip, as if keeping him grounded there.

“I’m not going back,” Shane growled. 

“Nothing to stop you if your little human isn’t around anymore, right?” Marcus inquired, a sly grin graced his face, he took a small step forward.  “I’ll even make it quick for him.”

Cold terror flooded through Ryan as he watched Marcus’s gray eyes glow to red, which triggered a faint memory of the woman in the bar parking lot, he didn’t know what to do, he fell when Shane was no longer there holding him, as the taller had lunged past him, and Marcus met him in the middle, their collision made Ryan’s teeth hurt, as it sounded like bones snapping from the sheer force.

“You’re nothing, Madej,” the demon possessing Marcus hissed, his eyes glowing like hot embers as he pinned Shane under him.  “Once I murder your pet, I’ll drag you back to where you belong, you’ll regret disobeying orders of the Counsel!”

“Bite me,” Shane spat, he managed to sock the other demon in the jaw, before two hands enclosed around his throat and pushed down, his nails dug into the clammy skin of the clearly dead vessel’s hands.  He glanced to the side of him briefly, he saw Ryan sitting there in terror, trembling in shock at what was going on, “Go!” he shouted, his voice a deep roar.

The other demon looked up when Ryan was backpedaling in fear of Madej’s voice, the demon smirked and licked his lips, “The sweet taste of terror, my, my, Madej, your human just _radiates,_ it.  I might go back on my promise, perhaps I’ll make his death slow before I devour his soul.”

Madej managed to break the other’s hold, he rolled them and brought a beating down onto Marcus’ face, his eyes starting to blacken in his rage.  He was shoved back when the other demon saw that Ryan was trying to flee the house, he had to tackle Marcus down, who went to charge after Ryan.

Marcus gritted his teeth, he waved a hand and dragged Ryan back by sheer force, the human screamed in terror and Shane scrabbled to break the connection.  Marcus rolled them, shoving Shane harshly into the ground to where the wood under them splintered, he leapt off Shane and came back for Ryan, who had gotten back up, and had made it out the front door.

Ryan had just made it to the car when Marcus had tackled him into the dirt, they rolled until Ryan was pinned down and he tried to shove the possessed being off him, but he held still there like a rock.  He clawed at Marcus’s face, but that still did not faze him in the slightest, he jumped and began to shout when he saw the hunting knife that Marcus had grabbed from his pocket and flipped open and was bringing it closer to his throat.

“Honestly, I don’t know why Madej got so emotionally attached to you,” Marcus hummed, “we’re demons!” he cackled.  “But, once you're gone, he’ll have no reason to continue to mope on this shithole of a world.”

Ryan squeezed his eyes shut when he felt the blade graze his skin.

“Get off of him!” Shane snarled, he shoved Marcus off, he didn’t even flinch when the hunting knife had been shoved into his side and twisted, blood poured out of him, soaking his clothes, soaking the ground and Marcus, he had been pushed back down.

“You can’t stay if your vessel is decapitated,” Marcus snarled, grinning evilly.  He was pushing down as Shane was pushing up on his arms, stopping the blade from going through his throat, intending to saw his head off.

Ryan started to panic from all the blood and saw that Shane— _no_ , the demon possessing Shane—was going to die if he didn’t do something, if the demon possessing his friend died, then Ryan was fucked too.  He looked behind himself and saw that their equipment bags were still there, along with his backpack that had his water bottle that was filled with holy water.  He scrambled towards it, ripping through his bag, until plastic crunched in his hand and he quickly pulled out the plastic bottle and ran over to the demons, he saw that the Madej was starting to lose strength and Ryan uncapped it and threw half the contents at them, the majority of it splashed onto Marcus, but a little got on Madej as well.

The reaction was almost immediate, they both screeched in pain, Marcus flung himself away from Shane, writhing on the ground, Shane gasped in relief when the pressure had been lifted from him, but his face was burning and his hands; he wore his sweater, so at least his arms weren’t going to blister.

“ _You!_ ” Marcus snarled at Ryan, he got up and came running at Ryan like a rabid beast, knife clutched in his hand.

Ryan flung the rest of his holy water directly at Marcus’s face, who dropped to the ground, clawing at his face in agony, while screeching every terrible thing he wanted to do to Ryan, who immediately ran away from the attacking demon the moment he threw his holy water at him.

Shane stumbled to his feet; he didn’t feel pain, but he still tried to stop the stab wound near his hip.  He staggered towards Marcus, kneeing him in the face, he took the hunting knife, he brought it down through Marcus’ throat and ripped the blade down to mid-chest.

Ryan dropped to the ground when a gray cloud of smoke erupted from Marcus’ vessel, it sounded like howling wind before tunneling back towards the house, where a bright flash of light was, the windows blew out, and he covered his ears when there was shrill screaming, and everything went silent.

Shane had dropped the knife; the demon possessing Marcus was gone.  He let out a soft grunt as he stood back up, knees popping.  He looked over to Ryan, who flinched and started to shake, “Ryan,” he said softly.

“Stay away from me!” Ryan cried, he was by the car, frantically looking for the door handle.  He looked at his empty water bottle when the demon ignored him and started to calmly walk towards him, holding his hands up in a calming gesture.  Ryan chucked the plastic at him when the demon was within range, it hit him in the chest and fell to the dirt, the demon gave him an unamused look, so much like his friend that a strangled sob escaped Ryan.

Ryan was still trying to open the door, which was locked and he couldn’t find the keys; he must have lost them during his attack on the ground.  Jingling met his ears and he saw to his horror the keys in the demon’s hand, offering them to him.  He didn’t dare leave his spot, as the demon stood by the trunk, “What are you going to do to me?  Kill me?  Eat my soul?  What the fuck did you do to Shane?!” he shouted.

Shane grimaced the shrillness of Ryan’s voice, “I’m not going to hurt you at all, because I am Shane,” he responded.

“No, no you’re not!” Ryan was shaking his head, he flinched back as the demon stepped closer, still offering the keys to him.  He jumped when the demon tossed the keys to his feet, Ryan was too scared to even crouch down to grab them, the demon must have known his hesitance, because the demon moved to slowly sit down on the ground, still holding a bloody hand to his still bleeding side.

Shane pulled his cracked phone from his pocket, it was still usable at least, he was scrolling through his phone, looking for Sara’s contact.

“W-what are you doing?” Ryan demanded shakily, he had snatched the keys the moment the demon wasn’t paying him any mind.

“I’m calling Sara,” Shane replied.

“Leave her alone!  How do you even know her?!” Ryan shouted, his heart was beating a mile a minute, now in terror for his female friend.

“Because I’m going to call her to come and pick me up.  It’ll be a long as fuck wait, but what option do I have?” Shane stated.  He finally looked at Ryan, “Get in the car and drive away, now,” he demanded.

“No, I don’t trust you,” Ryan said angrily.  “And you still have possession of my friend!”

“I’ve had this vessel since he was 20 years old and one step away from jumping off a bridge because he couldn’t handle the stress of life,” Shane snapped.  “I did him a favor, he didn’t want to live anymore, I told him that I could take over and his soul could cross over, I’d finish what he started, rekindle the relationships with his parents and brother, and make something of his life.”

Ryan was staring at him in bewilderment, “But you’re a demon…” he said slowly.

“No shit,” Shane huffed.  “Have you finished looking like you’re going to pass out, or do you need Sara too?”

“Shane?” Ryan asked in disbelief, ignoring the demon’s question.

“That is the name I have continued to carry, but my real name is Madej,” Shane responded.  “Feel free to call me either, I guess,” he mumbled as he put his phone back into his pocket, figuring that Ryan was calming down somewhat to finally talk.

Ryan took a tiny step forward, “You’ve…you’ve been _this_ the whole time?” he whispered.

“For as long as I can remember,” Shane responded.  He exhaled slowly and took off his sweater to ball it up and pushed it against his side, “Fuck,” Shane groaned.  He was surprised that Ryan had crept much closer now, he was within range to grab, but he didn’t move, he didn’t want to scare him away.

“Are you dying?” Ryan asked him, his mind was still sort of melting, and struggling to wrap around the fact that his friend had been a demon this whole time.    

“No, my vessel is already dead, all I need is my demonic energy to keep kicking, baby!” Shane chirped, grinning cheekily, which he realized was the last thing to do, because Ryan burst into tears, sobbing incoherently, he suddenly had Ryan in his space, clinging to him, crying into his shoulder, yelling something that was muffled by the flannel he wore under his sweater.

Ryan pull back to stare in disbelief at Shane for stating that he was a demon, “There’s no fucking way you’re a demon!  Demons are evil darkness!  Y-you fucking like turkey bacon and honey on your toast, demons don’t like that shit!  You wear grandpa sweaters and make stupid jokes!  Demons like death and darkness or something!  For fuck’s sake, you made a stupid on-going story about hotdogs and French fries!”

“Ouch, Ryan, you’ve really hurt me with the stereotyping of demons.  What, a demon like me can’t enjoy popcorn while wearing a comfy sweater and scribbling out an amazing story?”

Ryan looked torn between hysterical laughter or hysterical crying and he sort of felt like doing both the more he stared into Shane’s pitch-black eyes, and being this close, he could see that the vessel’s skin was healing over from where the holy water burned him, and he had blood speckled on his face.  He hiccupped out a few more sobs when Shane wound his arms around him, “This is fucking crazy,” Ryan whispered.

“No, this is real life, the life mortals aren’t supposed to know about,” Shane murmured softly.  He could finally relax for the time being, his secret to Ryan finally out in open, but only for a little while longer until he had to leave Ryan forever, “I’m so glad that you’re alive,” he continued softly, pulling Ryan closer to him, he tucked Ryan’s head under his chin and what a relief it was to feel Ryan’s warmth, his shuddering breath from being so worked up, to feel his soft hair tickling his neck; he was happy with himself to keep his human alive.

Ryan was clinging to Shane’s ruined flannel, “Why couldn’t we know?”

“Because this would happen,” Shane simply stated, gesturing to the all the blood and the corpse.  He rested his head back against the car, Ryan moved with him, “I knew that someday this would happen, I had actually hoped it was because you accidentally splashed me with your holy water…not you finding out because you nearly got killed.”

“But you kept me safe,” Ryan murmured, closing his eyes.

“I would do anything to keep you safe, idiot, even if it’s walking first into a not haunted house,” Shane huffed.  He heard Ryan’s wheezy giggle that still sounded tear-sodden and he quietly soothed him, “We’re okay now, and I’m sorry that I kept you in the dark.”

“It’s okay Ryan reassured him.  He let his eyes shut and cuddled close, the warmth he felt from Shane and the sun made him tired and from what all had happened; he let his mind wander and wanted to stay in this moment forever, as he felt extremely safe and content for the first time in his life.

Shane remained where he was even after the sun had long gone set low behind the horizon, there were barely any gold highlights in the sky; the temperature was dropping, but Ryan wasn’t stirring.  He let out a soft sigh and made himself get up, while still holding onto Ryan.

He grimaced as the dried blood from his side shifted with him, he could feel the wound tearing open again and his sweater was soaked through; the overwhelming smell of all the blood made his nose crinkle and he dropped his ruined sweater on the ground, maybe some wolves or a Chupacabra would take it and hopefully they’d take the body too.

Shane easily loaded Ryan into the passenger seat before moving to collect their stuff and put it all in the backseat and got into the driver’s seat; he hoped that he wouldn’t leave bloodstains everywhere in their rental as that would look bad.

The trip was silent, Ryan was still out; Shane figured it must have been the adrenaline rush leaving him and shock and even though it was still a little warm out, Shane turned the heat on low so that if Ryan was going through shock, the warmth would help ease him out of it.  He was grateful that it was a weekday, it meant that no one was out late and even the front door associate of their hotel was MIA, so Shane cut the security feed and brought Ryan inside and to their room.

He eased Ryan onto his bed and dropped onto his own with a sigh that turned into a groan when his wound was draining again; his flannel was good as fucked and Shane was annoyed as that was his favorite shirt.  He stood back up, took his flannel off, tied the sleeves tight around himself and pulled on a dark shirt before exiting the hotel room; he had medical supplies to get.

~~~

Ryan actually stirred when he heard a string of mild cursing, he rubbed his eyes and sat up tiredly, “How did I get here?” 

“Brought you here, duh,” Shane said, mumbling through the fish line that he had clamped between his teeth.  He attention went back to stitching his wound shut, his fingers were slicked in blood and he had a bloody towel on his lap.

The terrifying sight of Shane pushing a sewing needle through his skin snapped Ryan awake, “You need to go to a doctor!” Ryan shouted.  “Jesus, Shane, what if that gets infected?!”

“Nah, I’ve done this before,” Shane shrugged off his concern.  “I’ve been stabbed a few times before, patched myself up and I’m good as new.”

The human made himself look away, “What do we do now?”

“What do you mean?” Shane asked, cutting the line and moved to douse peroxide onto the wound before smearing a tone of Neosporin over the stitching and patched it down with gauze.  He pulled his shirt on carefully and gave his full attention to Ryan, “Ryan?”

Ryan looked at Shane, his face expressed unhappiness and concern, as his demon friend had deep bruising around his neck, his hands were covered in drying blood, and it just terrified and upset Ryan that was how Madej lived and he was worried about their future after what just happened, “We murdered someone, Shane, and we just left his body back at his house, which then property was destroyed, your blood is everywhere!  They will track us down,” he fretted.  “They won’t believe us that it was self-defense because Marcus was fucking possessed!  They’ll lock us up in an insane asylum!”

“It’s not hard to convince a human of otherwise,” Shane shrugged at him, he stood up to go to the bathroom to wash his hands and throw away the bloody items.

“What do you mean by that?” Ryan demanded, following him.  He stood in the doorway of the bathroom, while Shane bent slightly to wash his hands in the sink, “What are you going to do?”

“Demons are able to manipulate the memories of humans, most of the time the memory blocking is used for failed attempts to get prey, blocking memories or manipulation to get out of murder, other times, on much rarer occasions, it’s used to block traumatic experiences or witnessing of…unexplainable things, which is what I am,” Shane stated.  He dried his hands and turned to face Ryan, his eyes were sad, “And more importantly, demons who do care of their human companions, will erase the memory of them when they’ve been discovered so that their humans are not in danger of the supernatural world, as the quote goes “oblivion is bliss” and that means in a morbid way, a sense of protection from the unknown.”

Ryan backed up, “ _Don’t._ ”

“Ryan, you know too much, and besides, you wouldn’t know I was gone anyway,” Shane murmured.

“Yes, I would,” Ryan snapped.  “Don’t tell me you know how I would feel about the whole thing of you erasing yourself from my existence.  I would know something was missing!”

“Maybe,” Shane agreed, “but that would only last for a while and you’d move on with far more important things in your life.”

“What about your family?  You’d just fuck off and abandon them too?” Ryan scowled, folding his arms across his chest.  “You’d just erase their memories?  No more holiday fishing with your dad?  No more going to watch cheesy movies with Finn?  What about your mom?  You always talked about how much you liked helping her around the house when you went home!  Fuck, _we_ made a tradition to always go with each other to our families’ holiday dinners!”

“They’re not my family!  They’re Shane’s,” the demon growled.

Ryan glared at him, “ _You_ are Shane!  You’ve always been Shane to me!  This is the only version I know!  You’re the only Shane my family knows, because you are part of my family now, you doofus!  Do you know how devastated and unhappy my younger cousins would be if you were gone from their lives?  Even if they didn’t remember you, there would be a void there, because only your stupid prattling about your version of history or telling them your stupid stories made them laugh like me!  My mom said you’re a fucking godsend when taking care of the toddlers in my family, you’d just ditch my mom to handle that?!”

“Don’t guilt trip me into staying, Ryan, this is dangerous,” Shane was shaking his head, but his stomach was clenching up; Ryan could be the perfect manipulator if he wanted to be, and didn’t help that Shane wanted to bend to every whim, especially when Ryan was giving him that kicked puppy stare.

“Because you’re a demon?” Ryan huffed at him.

“No, because I’m part of the Higher Counsel of Hell, they’ve been sending messengers after me to drag me back, but so far, unsuccessful, and now that I have no purpose here, because I’ll have to leave you, I guess I’ll have to go back,” Shane explained.  “I only stayed, because I wanted to be here, with you.”

That statement of Shane being part of cult in Hell didn’t shake Ryan, he told himself to brave up and grabbed Shane’s hands, “Then stay here, with me,” Ryan pleaded softly.

Shane felt himself grow tingly at the contact, “You’ll be in danger.”

“I’m always in danger, but I know I’ll be even more under a threat if you’re not there to scare off any ghosts,” Ryan argued.  “I don’t want you to go, I don’t want to forget you,” Ryan whispered, his eyes were getting hot and his throat felt like it was getting tight.

Madej felt like a monster; he never wanted to make Ryan cry, he held his human close, “I have no purpose here, Ryan,” Shane whispered. 

“You do!” Ryan argued, voice muffled in Shane’s chest.  He pulled away, determination on his face, “How can I make you stay?”

“Ryan,” Shane started, but nothing heated behind it because Ryan’s eyes were still glossy.

“What if I make a pact with you?” Ryan asked and he saw Shane stiffen up.  “Can that be done?”

“You don’t know what you’re saying!” Shane raised his voice.  “If you do that, your soul will belong to me.”

“But, it’ll make you stay, right?” Ryan questioned him.  “And I don’t care about that, because I trust you.”

Shane was shaking his head at him, “Ryan, enough, you’re not going to make a deal with me, understand?”

“Or what, you’ll erase my memories and leave me forever?” Ryan mocked him and he saw an angry flush rush up Shane’s face.  “I think agreeing to have you be the keeper of my soul is the better trade off, because then that means other demons can’t touch me, right?”

“Are you sure that you’re not part of a cult?” Shane questioned him, eyeing him, but he couldn’t sense any tainted energy around Ryan.

“No, but I’ve…read stuff before,” Ryan mumbled, a flush coming up his face. 

Shane’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “Ryan Steven Bergara, you promiscuous boy!”

“Shut up, I didn’t sleep with any demons, I read about it!” Ryan exclaimed, slapping Shane’s arm, who just laughed at him.

“Demon erotica,” Shane chuckled, if he had the forked tail, and the back in the day evil man mustache, he’d certainly be twirling them.  “But…if this what you want and you won’t regret this, having me in your life every second of you day, me being the keeper of your soul, you have to be certain that this is what you want.”

“I do,” Ryan swore.

“Well then, you may now kiss your demon,” Shane chuckled, he saw the nervous bob of Ryan’s throat, but his human didn’t back away when Shane bent a little to just give a shy brush of their lips, he heard Ryan giggle softly at the sensation of his beard brushing against Ryan’s cheeks and lips.

Ryan gave him an incredulous stare, “That all you got, Madej?”

“I didn’t expect you to…go towards men?” Shane blinked at the challenge in Ryan’s eyes.

“Demons, I go for demons,” Ryan stood on his tiptoes and pressed a firmer kiss to Shane’s mouth, who easily cooperated with him, his hands going to the back of Ryan’s thighs and hoisted him up, before pressing him up against a wall of their hotel room.

The only separated their faces when Ryan had to turn away, apparently Shane didn’t require to breathe, but Ryan did.  He panted softly, his eyes slid back shut when Shane moved to kiss across the smooth skin of his neck, “Are _all_ pacts like this?” Ryan asked breathlessly.

Shane chuckled and shook his head, he gave Ryan a cheeky grin, “Really, just shaking hands would have worked too, but I had been waiting to kiss you for a while.”

“You’re impossible,” Ryan stated blocking Shane’s next kiss with his hand.

“Yup, and you get to deal with me until your dying breath, baby!” Shane crowed, his voice smothered slightly by Ryan’s palm.

“Where’s the return receipt?” Ryan grumbled, but he didn’t mind so much at having Shane in his space, literally pressed up against him, holding him up against a wall, and looking at him with all the adoration in the world.  He lowered his hand, “So, you’re mine to keep?”

“Until you’re sick of me,” Shane promised. 

Ryan gave his warm, breathtaking smile that made could make the sun jealous, “The only thing I’ll get sick of is your stupid Hot Dog Saga…and maybe your dad jokes.

“But that’s what makes me, _me_!” Shane protested. 

Ryan smiled gently this time, pressing a soft kiss to Shane’s cheek, “I know,” he said fondly, eyes softening, “and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Shane pressed their lips together, the spark between them was a promising one, one that would surely last, where Ryan was to go, Shane would follow, to Hell and back and to Heaven and back, through every haunted and not haunted house or hospital, to keep his beloved human safe and sound.

After all, demons like Shane Madej didn’t share; finders keepers and all that.


End file.
